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Via notsohip on LJ: The co-founder of GiveWell, a new charity-evaluating organization, tries to astroturf MetaFilter. I haven't gotten through all the comments, but my favorite so far is where he tries to buy them off:

holden00: I don't have a lot of money. I am not from the Cristal set. I spent 3 years at a hedge fund and gave enough to charity that I wanted to know more about what I was doing. So I can't offer a lot of money, but I can offer a donation to Metafilter from my pocket. I'm not offering this in return for your ceasing your criticism, I'm offering it to make up for abusing the rules. Would that be appropriate? Would anything else?

By the Grace of God: What would be appropriate is a public admission of what you did and a link to this thread on your blog. That would be better (for YOUR business, which is an analyst and trades on accountability) than if the NYT reporter [who wrote a puff piece on GiveWell] gets to it first.

And then the MeFi commenters start emailing the NYT reporter. Brought to his knees, Holden apologizes on the GiveWell blog, where the dogpile continues.

ETA from nam_jai: Effective January 3, 2008, Holden Karnofsky has been removed from his position as Executive Director of GiveWell and from his position as Board Secretary (entry date: January 6).

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	lady7jane 2008-01-05 05:44 am UTC (link)
	As far as charities go, I've always favored the Human Fund -- Money for people. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tree 2008-01-05 08:23 pm UTC (link)
	Ditto. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	pastri_archy 2008-01-05 05:53 am UTC (link)
	I saw the word astroturf and my brain went "...what's fake grass got to do with charity? o.O" and then shorted out trying to think of another definition. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	cleolinda 2008-01-05 05:57 am UTC (link)
	It's basically the practice of faking grassroots support, as with employees posting as regular, unrelated commenters. Fake + grass[roots] = astroturf. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pastri_archy 2008-01-05 06:12 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, that's what I gathered from Wikipedia. Still was a funny "brain-go-BOOM!" moment. I wonder if it can be played in Scrabble? :D (Reply to this)(Parent)

anjali
2008-01-05 06:49 am UTC (link)

Dude. I went to college with this guy. He was in my class. Not that I knew him then, but it's just hysterical. Two days ago we got the monthly class of '03 e-newsletter, and it contained a plug for the NYT article and a WSJ article as well. I read it and thought, "huh, that's interesting. Sounds vaguely like something one of my friends who ~~sold out~~ works for a hedge fund would do, except he's planning on going the Ph.D. route." Thought no more about it, and then he shows up here of all places.

RL and e-world clash so rarely for me; I'm tickled pink when it actually happens. And now I have a strong urge to mention astroturfing within earshot of this guy at our 5-year-reunion in June. With all the booze that'll be floating around it's pretty good odds that I will. XD

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	alya1989262 2008-01-05 12:29 pm UTC (link)
	Dude. You should be all like, "Oh, heard about that guy who tried to astroturf metafilter? Utterly stupid, right? Gives people like you a bad name!" :D (Reply to this)(Parent)

	pastri_archy 2008-01-05 02:30 pm UTC (link)
	Dude, that's awesome. I support this idea. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	nam_jai 2008-01-05 04:23 pm UTC (link)
	hands you booze (to get you in practice) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mmanurere 2008-01-05 07:25 am UTC (link)
	Pfft. Sockpuppet dialogues for the purpose of self-promotion are old -- at least when Plato did it he used someone good as a sockpuppet. Really, astroturfers these days have no ambition. (Reply to this)

	brown_betty 2008-01-05 07:51 am UTC (link)
	Ooh, non-profit wank! Although really, if you go from hedge-fund to non-profit, that's gotta be a pretty profitable non-profit. (Reply to this)

	tangentialone 2008-01-05 11:27 am UTC (link)
	Well, I guess they donated $10 to MetaFilter. :P (Reply to this)

	joye 2008-01-05 01:07 pm UTC (link)
	I'm just boggling at the stupidity of someone using a part of their real name as a sockpuppet identity. I mean if you're going to sockpuppet, go all the way. His lame excuse that this proves he didn't really mean to deceive just proves to me that he's incompetent even at lying. (Reply to this)

	theonedespot 2008-01-05 04:54 pm UTC (link)
	I like the section halfway down where one of Holden's friends (mrserkan) comes along to defend him and gets outed after his first comment. (Reply to this)

	emiweebee 2008-01-05 05:06 pm UTC (link)
	Nifty. I've heard of Givewell before, and they always left a bad taste in my mouth - all the negative aspects of rival sites they point out seem really nitpicky and petty. Nice to see my gut reaction was partially vindicated! (Reply to this)

nam_jai
2008-01-05 05:24 pm UTC (link)

Why, this mysterious, yet surely objective, commenter has convinced me! I won't give my money to a 60-year-old highly acclaimed charity, but rather to give it to a weaselly new internet operation. I mean, with Heifer International, my money doesn't actually directly buy a cow! With Givewell, my money directly ... does something. Not entirely clear on that. But I'm sure it's good!

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	julesnoctambule 2008-01-05 06:05 pm UTC (link)
	What? You mean Heifer won't be sending me a side of beef in the mail? I feel cheated, I tell you. Cheated. (actually, we donated ducks, geese and chicks this year. where's my scrambled eggs??) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nam_jai 2008-01-05 06:25 pm UTC (link)
	And where the hell is my sweater from that sheep, huh? Okay, it was only part of a sheep, sure, but at least a scarf's worth ... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	julesnoctambule 2008-01-05 08:05 pm UTC (link)
	Surely socks, if nothing else. Damned ungrateful charities! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	wickedwitch 2008-01-06 09:09 pm UTC (link)
	I thought Harvard grads were taught better than to use comma splices and horrific sentence structure. As for the sophomoric "Ah wus sleepiez, LOL" excuse, I'd like to see him use that on one of his hedge fund clients after buying junk bonds from make$$m0neeeyidid@maloumnik.ru. Or are money for poor people less important or worthy of effort? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	iwanttobeasleep 2008-01-06 09:44 pm UTC (link)
	"To me it was the equivalent of shouting NO, THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING What you did was the equivalent of lying." Hee! (Reply to this)

	nam_jai 2008-01-07 08:37 pm UTC (link)
	Update: Effective January 3, 2008, Holden Karnofsky has been removed from his position as Executive Director of GiveWell and from his position as Board Secretary. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	cleolinda 2008-01-07 11:34 pm UTC (link)
	Wow, thanks. (Reply to this)(Parent)